Friday, April 11, 2014

Ukraine Update

To someone who has only watched the Western media - with its calculated nurturing of the rabid squirrel attention spans - the situation in Ukraine may make no sense beyond the simplistic narrative of "good Ukrainians" facing off the "invading Evilrussians."

One could just look at all the posts here tagged "Ukraine," but alas, my coverage of the crisis has been rather spotty, since I've had to spare some attention to Serbian issues as well.

To remedy this, I've been meaning to put together a brief summary of events in the past four months, but that turned out to be unnecessary: Russian vlog "Goblin News" has already done so. Watch their video here, with English, German or even Ukrainian subtitles (select from the CC menu). Hat tip to The Saker for finding the video.

The Saker has also posted Vladimir Putin's letter to Russia's gas buyers in Europe, and his analysis thereof. Both are worth reading, as is the Saker's coverage of recent unrest in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkov, and other regions in the East.

As for the big picture, I have a new piece up on Antiwar.com today, comparing the present situation with the plot of an undeservedly forgotten 1991 sci-fi novel. For all the differences, there are some eerie similarities - the transformation of the USA into a militarized, paranoid police state, and the use of Ukraine to strike at Russia, to name just two. And the author, Norman Spinrad, has a keen eye for understanding and describing what makes people tick.

About the only advice I can give, based on 15 years or so of observing the media, is this. When you read, watch or listen to the coverage of Russia in the West, keep in mind the following observation by Jacques Ellul, in his 1962 book "Propaganda":
"The propagandist will not accuse his opponent of just anything, but precisely of the deed that the propagandist himself aims to perpetrate."
In other words, an extreme form of psychological projection. Observe many examples of it in Frank Furedi's account of Western activists, published in Spiked. So, the next time you hear about Russia "violating international law," or "invading" someone, or being "imperialist", keep in mind that those accusations speak far more about the person or organization making them, than about their target.

5 comments:

Teddy said...


The statement made by Alexei Pushkov at the press conference after the PACE vote was so good! I really liked how he dealt with the so called "press":

"If you are not happy with my statement, please leave"

Nice!

CubuCoko said...

I saw and heard Pushkov's comments in that video clip. Do you happen to have an English translation somewhere? I'll happily post it.

Teddy said...

The Saker has the English translation on his blog.

Blue Scorpion said...

Here it is

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.ca/search?q=Alexei+Pushkov

I have been following your work for over 10 years and can't understand where you get your energy and inspiration to expose the hypocrisy
of the western demonocrats and degenerates.You have my respect Nebojsa.

CubuCoko said...

Thanks! That's it :)

The inspiration is provided by the observable hypocrisy and evil-doing. The energy ebbs and flows with life, so I post more often at some times than others. Hope that makes sense.